A report from Reuters. "Investors fueling an initial public offering bonanza are snubbing many U.S. mortgage providers’ stock market debuts over concerns that the sector might have reached its peak. 'Investors don’t like buying into a company at the start of a down cycle, and mortgage originations are an extremely cyclical business,' said Matthew Kennedy, a senior strategist at IPO-focused research firm Renaissance Capital."

"LoanDepot Inc was forced to cut its IPO by 75% to $54 million this month, after investors balked at its request to be valued as highly as $6.8 billion. Home Point Capital Inc downsized its IPO by 40% at the end of January to $94 million, giving up hopes of an up-to-$2.9 billion valuation. Two other mortgage vendors, AmeriHome and Caliber Home Loans, pulled their IPOs in October."

From Mortgage Professional America. "The Cinderella story of mortgage companies setting up IPOs after a record 2020 has been marred somewhat in recent weeks. Some stocks have underperformed despite record earnings after going public, while other IPOs have been revised down or postponed before the listing day. Investors, it seems, remain unenthused about some of these mortgage companies despite continued record-breaking earnings and huge volumes."

"'You have to ask yourself why these companies are going public. In the mortgage industry it’s because they think this is the most booming time they’re ever going to have. In equities you’re always forward-looking, and investors are asking how much euphoria we can have a year from now,' said Jarred Kessler CEO of proptech firm EasyKnock. 'It’s all about managing expectations, and when you surprise those expectations, that’s when you see those 20%-30% drops in stocks. That’s usually the reason. It’s that or it’s fraud.'"

The Washington Post. "As many businesses remain shuttered and stimulus payments run out, the economic crisis created by the coronavirus pandemic continues to batter the District’s residential real estate market and small landlords in particular. 'The kind of losses that small landlords are experiencing are not sustainable,' said Dean Hunter, the Small Multifamily Owners Association’s president. 'Landlords are seeing a 40 percent decline in revenue but the mortgage, utilities and common-area bills are still 100 percent due.'"

"'I had to lower the rent 25 percent to accommodate the fact that my tenants lost their jobs/had reduced hours due to Covid,' one respondent wrote. 'Their rent payments only cover my mortgage and I’m losing money by renting my property once I account for utilities and repairs.'"

From Boston Magazine in Massachusetts. "By the end of 2020, the median sale price for single-family homes outside of Boston had jumped $50,000 since March, per the Greater Boston Real Estate Board. Meanwhile, in the city, the median sale price for a condo dropped by more than $40,000 in the same time period. It seemed, for a while, that Boston was losing its appeal to, well, just about every demographic group."

"'There are opportunities available in the city that haven’t been available in years,' says Dana Bull, a real estate agent with Sagan Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty. These days, sellers are getting more flexible with prices and terms as their once-unwavering trust in the city market falters. 'That’s appealing for people who have been wanting to buy in the city for a couple years and haven’t been able to pull the trigger because they haven’t felt like they’re coming at the market from a position of strength.'"

"Rentals are the other COVID jackpot for those on the hunt for city housing. The average cost for an apartment in Boston plummeted more than 20 percent from March to December, according to the rental site Apartment List."

From Mansion Global on New York. "Some wealthy financiers are trying to unload their homes in New York. 'If you think of New York City as a ballet, right now the city is at intermission,' said real-estate agent Jason Haber. 'During intermission, some people get restless and don’t come back for the next act. That’s what’s happening now.'"

The Wall Street Journal on New York. "Extell Development has sold a large stake in two of its luxury apartment buildings as it raises cash amid a still-struggling high-end condo market. RXR Realty bought a 42% stake in a two-building, 750-unit Extell Development portfolio for roughly $300M as the Manhattan rental market continues to hurt amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Financial Times reports."

"The buildings at 555 10th Ave. in Hudson Yards and 510 East 14th St. in the East Village, were valued at around $800M at the time of the sale, or $200M less than they were at before the pandemic, according to the FT. In January, rents in Manhattan were down 19% year-over-year, the second-lowest point since the pandemic took hold in the city. While experts say rents may have hit their lowest point in November — when prices were down 21.7% year-over-year — the recovery will be a slow one."

"The developer has a $900M construction loan on the project from JPMorgan Chase that matures this year, and not many of the condos, which were projected at a $4B sellout, have yet been sold. This comes amid a tumultuous time for the city’s residential sales market, particularly at the top of the market. The condo market has been oversupplied since before the pandemic took hold and the health crisis only made it worse. As of June, there were 15,000 unsold units throughout the city, roughly 15% of which were split among six buildings."

The Review Journal on Nevada. "When the Drew Las Vegas changed hands this month, the unfinished megaresort wasn’t acquired through a typical sale. Clark County records show that new owners acquired debt on the north Strip hotel-casino project Feb. 11 and, the same day, gained ownership of the property from developer Steve Witkoff through a 'deed in lieu of foreclosure.'"

"Las Vegas real estate broker Michael Parks, a hotel-casino specialist with CBRE Group, said a deed in lieu is typically undertaken because a property is in financial distress, and such transactions are 'more prevalent in times of economic turmoil.' He also confirmed that a deed in lieu might be recorded because a property owner is underwater, meaning their mortgage debt outweighs the real estate’s value. Some borrowers, he said, simply 'give up and give it back to the bank.'"

From Bisnow South Florida. "A Miami-area mall has been seized by its lender, which won a Feb. 10 foreclosure auction with a $2,600 credit bid, the South Florida Business Journal reported. Wells Fargo Bank, trustee for the CMBS trust that issued the loan for the 977K SF Southland Mall in Cutler Bay, Florida, filed a foreclosure lawsuit in June and won a judgment of $68.7M in principal and interest. The auction was scheduled after the court ruling was handed down."

"Investcorp's $65M commercial mortgage-backed securities loan, issued in 2014, went into special servicing in April 2020. As the coronavirus pandemic was bearing down and tenants struggled, Investcorp decided to let the property go, The Real Deal reported last year."

The New York Post. "It really must be the money. Rapper Nelly, born Cornell Iral Haynes Jr., has already found a buyer for his abandoned St. Louis-area home only days after it hit the market, The Post can report. The 12-acre estate was first listed on Feb. 11, only to have an offer Feb. 18, Missouri property records show. The price point, at $600,000, must have been appealing enough for someone to snatch up the property quickly. "

"But whoever the new owner is will have a lot of work on their hands to get the place up and running. With no plumbing, no flooring and plenty of renovations left to be done, this is what those in the biz call a 'fixer-upper.' Nelly, 46, bought the home back in 2002 for an estimated $2 million, hoping to flip it. But the mansion has sat idle for the past two decades. It seems this year, the singer decided to cut his losses and sell the property for cheap."